Mini Rasengan? Or not.

Noon, at the Emiya Household.

"So beautiful! Brother, come on, teach me how to make those sparkly lights! Please?" A voice full of curiosity and excitement was heard beside Ryan.

Two kids were gathering inside a storeroom, one was staring with starlit eyes, while the other kid held a little green ball made of flickering air current on his hand.

"Finally, my own version of mini Rasengan's completed! MwaHahaHa!"

"Brother, what is Raseng.. en?"

Ryan nearly lost his concentration looking at Shirou's dumb look when he asked him, the small lump of wind on his palm nearly broke apart.

Looking at the innocent Shirou, Ryan couldn't help remember these two years he had been living in this world.

Back when he had agreed to be Kiritsugu's adopted son and found out Shirou was still following the original history as Kiritsugu's other adopted son, he immediately put the hierarchy up with the little Shirou. As he was older than Shirou by one year, he should be the older brother after all...

He had not realized it then, but since he arrived in this world, it seemed he was not speaking in his previous mother language nor in English, but in Japanese. Moreover, when he tried to speak or learn other languages, it would not take long for him to have enough proficiency on them. The same thing also applied to other knowledge he tried to learn; such as magecraft.

Ryan had a thought perhaps it was because his current body was quite gifted itself, or that might also be the result of continuously refining his soul in accordance to Demon King Solomon's Arcane Art.

Within these two years, Kiritsugu had taught Ryan about some basic knowledge on magecraft as soon as Ryan had recovered. However, it didn't go into deeper details as Kiritsugu himself was not a proper magus. To Kiritsugu, magecraft was only a tool to reach his goal, it was not his pursuit nor his purpose in life. As a result, Kiritsugu only had some scattered and easy-to-use, practical magecrafts to teach others to.

Ryan was taught about basic knowledge of Refinement magecraft which was used for strengthening objects; Gradation Air (Projection magecraft) which materialized objects in accordance to the caster's imagination, and little bits of training on his magic circuit and Mystic Code– no, it was Mystic Eyes… the Mystic Eyes of Heaven's Gaze (Heavenly Eye).

According to Kiritsugu, Ryan appeared to have been contaminated by evil energy coming from the black mud - the cause of previous disaster. With strengthening and training his Mystic Eyes, Kiritsugu said that Ryan could suppress the contamination for longer duration, or even expel it if he became stronger later on.

Although, Ryan had never thought it was that simple. He knew that a mere contamination wouldn't be able to contend tie to tie with his Mystic Eyes. The fact that it could, meant that its degree of Mystery had reached similar level, or it could be even higher...

"It's Rasengan! Ugh, well, you can just think of it as ultimate move of a certain hero."

"Ohh...is that from a new animation? Is it good?"

Ryan felt that Shirou looked more innocent and spirited now compared to how he was portrayed in the movies. If this was the original Shirou according to the original story, he would not have such bright and cheerful look on his face as the guilt for being the only one surviving the disaster weighed down heavily on him.

I guess my addition did change some things here… Ryan thought quietly.

"Well, ugh, it's just so-so I guess. Just enough to spend my time lazing around."

"You should have called me to watch it too, brother..." Shirou looked downhearted.

"Who told you to run around the house pretty often, lil' bro. Stage, off." Ryan said as he dissipated the small ball of wind on his palm.

Actually, the ball of wind Ryan had created was too small to call it a rasengan as in Naruto's; its size was only around the size of marble, it only took little toll on his mana reserve. Proportional to its consumption, its power was also quite weak; it was only able to stun cats or dogs when fired, while it would only cause negligible skin injury if used on people.

Despite so, the spell held a special sentiment to Ryan because that spell was the first spell he invented on his own. Ryan decided to call that spell 'Mana Bullet'.

It was named like that because whenever Ryan tried to activate his magic circuit, the image of a Desert Eagle being fired appeared in his mind. Ryan guessed it was probably because he often played CS:Zero that he had such mental image when activating his magic circuit…

Mana Bullet was a simple spell, actually. Utilizing his dual Wind and Fire element affinity, Ryan created a small projection of a bullet which he would then fill with weak air current and heat energy from surrounding area.

'Status.'

[Name]: Emiya Ryan

[Strength]: E

[Vitality]: F+

[Dexterity]: E-

[Spirit]: D

[Luck]: C-

[Innate]: Mystic Eyes of Heaven's Gaze (Heavenly Eye) (D)

[Essence Point]: 28.8

[Skills]:

- Frost Dragon King Arcane Art (level 0)

- Demon King of Domination Arcane Art (level 1) (99%)

- Magecraft (Mana Bullet, Refinement, Gradation Air)

Looking at his current updated (status), there were already small improvement on some of his stats after these two years of training.

His strength increased two grades (F+ -> E),

vitality increased two grades (F- -> F+),

dexterity increased one grade (F+ -> E-),

spirit increased one grade (D- -> D).

His luck stat had yet to increase, unfortunately.

His skillset was also becoming more organized after he learned more things in these two years. It looked to him that his game-like panel had the capability to improve in accordance to Ryan's own knowledge and comprehension; as in the more things he learned and understood, the better it became in reflecting Ryan's current stats.

One other important thing Ryan had realized from his status panel was that it could forcefully increase his stats and skills if he had sufficient [Essence Point] - EP for short. Ryan knew this fact after he accidentally clicked on '+' mark which appeared beside his [Strength] stats in last year's Summer. As a result, his [Strength] was immediately increased by one grade, and his EP was short by 10 points at once. Although, there was one stat Ryan couldn't raise by using his EP no matter how many he tried; that was the [Luck] stat…

Originally, Ryan could earn around 0.03 EP every day, but it increased to around 0.05~0.06 when he was training his magecraft or Demon King Solomon's Arcane Art. Since it held the word 'Essence', Ryan couldn't help linking it to mana or magic energy. Evident by how it increased when Ryan actively training, it was likely to be true.

Since the first instance Ryan accidentally raised his [Strength] stat, he had been careful in handling his EP as he believed he could still raise his stats by training, and saved up his EP for later uses.

If there was a time that even after training assiduously, Ryan was hard-pressed to increase his stats, that would be the right time to use his EP.

That was what came to his mind after many years of experience grinding in the game; because, instant level-up items or EXP items should be saved for late game when increasing exp by normal grinding became more difficult.

After all, when the ratio between effort spent and results gained is not satisfactory, isn't it the time to use the allowed cheat then? Hehe~

Just when Ryan was absorbed in his thought, a shadow slowly came behind him. It moved closer… and closer to inattentive Ryan…

Grab!

A strong hand immediately picked Ryan at the waist, holding him like a sag.

"You kids…, you know what time it's now? It's time to have lunch! What are you doing sneaking around in the storeroom for?!"

A young girl wearing Homurahara Academy had rushed into the storeroom.

After picking Ryan, that girl quickly made short work of Shirou too, as he was also quickly caught by her other hand.

Even without turning his head, Ryan knew who this person was.

This young, spirited girl was Taiga Fujimura, the granddaughter of local landlord who was also Kiritsugu's acquaintance in Fuyuki City. She was still 16 this year, looking way younger and more free-spirited compared to how she appeared at the start of (Fate Stay/Night). Her light brown hair was tied in ponytail, and she was carrying a shinai on her back along with her backpack.

Ryan secretly made eye contact with Shirou.

This is a secret between us, don't tell it to her or father, alright? I will teach you more about magecraft if you do so, 'kay.

Shirou nodded fervently in reply.

"What secret thing are you hiding from me, huh? Do you already start reading porn mags, eh? Wanna have more spanking, kids?" Taiga's eyes suddenly fell on Ryan. She was smiling, but her eyes told Ryan otherwise.

"Ugh, I just hope you didn't cook for the lunch this time, right, Fuji-nee. Else, we will probably go to the afterlife earlier…" Ryan said unbiased. His eyes showed the purity and child-like innocence of a kid, but his words struck deep into Taiga's heart. He looked nothing like a good kid, more like he was asking for trouble instead.

"Hush… brother, brother,… you should not have said it, or we're gonna be in more trouble now…" Shirou said weakly, he was evidently traumatized from his past experiences with Taiga.

Taiga kept smiling, her menacing aura became thicker and thicker as she looked at the kids in her custody.

This kid's really asking for it, isn't he?!

"Let's put some sense into you, kid!"

~ ~ ~

Fifteen minutes later…

Ryan and Shirou were both eating lunch nicely like little good kids. Shirou sat on Kiritsugu's left side, while Ryan sat on his right side. Taiga was humming happily as she sat in front of Kiritsugu, eating lunch together with the Emiya Household at table of four.

"You kids made Taiga angry again, huh." Kiritsugu was laughing lightly when he saw Ryan and Shirou slightly moved their butt from time to time.

It seemed Taiga did spank them again, Haha…

"No, no, no. Why would I angry with them? We just have a good discussion about training, Uncle Kiritsugu." Taiga was somewhat shy as she spoke. It was quite a sight to see the usually free-spirited Taiga to be mindful of someone's opinion this time.

Well, it was not a secret to Ryan why she would turn like that. Heck, he bet even Kiritsugu also noticed it. But since Kiritsugu was still blaming himself for losing his wife, Irisviel, in the previous Holy Grail war, and since he now couldn't even meet his only daughter, Kiritsugu probably decided to set certain distance with Taiga so as not to give her some false hope.

"Ha, ha ha, it's fine, the kids should also learn some politeness. Just don't overdo it, girl." Kiritsugu smiled kindly. He continued eating his lunch, calmly savoring this peaceful moment.

After they had done having lunch, Ryan called out to Taiga before she went home.

"Fuji-nee, going home early?"

"Oh, Ryan, what's up?"

"Did you really forget? You said you would train Kendo with me again today. Isn't that the reason you bring shinai?"

"Ehh~ now that you mentioned it… did I really say that? It's not tomorrow?" Taiga looked confused, she thought hard about it, but it seemed like she really forgot about it.

"…I see, guess I will just tell Father about 'it' then." Ryan turned around, whistling lightly.

Taiga could pretty much guess what Ryan mentioned was her feeling for Kiritsugu, if Ryan told Kiritsugu about it... She would feel so embarassed! It would be hard to come to his place like how she usually did now...

"You dare?! Fine, let's get you more training then! See how I teach you not to make fun of your elders, you precocious kid!"

"Now that's the spirit, Fuji-nee!" Ryan was sprinting toward the dojo, smiled mischievously while glancing at the bashful and furious Taiga behind him.

This girl's so easy to trick to… but oh well, she has real skills with kendo though. If I want to survive better in the next Holy Grail war, I better use her to train me as best as she could. Hehe~